Carrying capacity of Manali, McLeodganj to be assessed

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, September 28

The state government on Friday set the ball rolling for setting up of the 10-member expert committee to undertake the carrying capacity assessment of ecological sensitive and geologically fragile areas in Manali and McLeodganj within within three months.

The state government wrote to experts from various agencies so that the expert committee can be constituted by October 15 as per the directives of the National Green Tribunal issued last week. Additional Chief Secretary, Town and Country Planning (TCP) Prabodh Saxena chaired a meeting of the officials of TCP and State Pollution Control Board here.

It is based on the report of the expert committee that the NGT will take a call on banning or restricting construction activity in McLeodganj and Manali. The NGT has asked the committee to suggest the nature of restrictions that are to be laid down, keeping in view the seismicity and geo-physical setting of the area.

Sources said that Member Secretary, State Pollution Control Board, had written letters to various organisation to nominate their members to be part of the expert committee. It is expected that the committee will be in place by October so that it can complete its work within three months. The next hearing of the case before the NGT is expected to be in latter half of January.

The NGT in its order on September 19 had directed the assessment of the carrying capacity of the towns of Manali and McLeodganj be done in terms of tourist inflows, vehicular traffic and parking space, road infrastructure, general scarcity of under-ground water, availability of drinking water, air quality, bio-diversity of the area, earthquakes, disasters, structures stability, seismicity, land bearing capacity of soil, underlying rock, proneness of landslide, structural flaws in existing structures and transport and mobility.

The experts to be taken on the committee as per the NGT would be from GP Pant Institute, Almora, Uttarakhand, Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education, a senior scientist from Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, National Disaster Management Authority, Central Ground Water Board, Dehradun, Central Pollution Control Board, New Delhi, School of Planning and Architecture Union Ministry of Forest and Environment and Chief Town Planner, Shimla or senior Architect (Planner).

The NGT has taken a serious view of the constructions within the prohibited range on the banks of Beas river, which mainly included hotels and shops, posing a severe threat of the ecology. The case of some of such illegal constructions in Kasauli built in violation of the law is already being heard by the NGT.

The TCP Department has already inspected 697 commercial establishments and inspection report of 576 units has already been filed before the NGT with regard to hotels in Kullu-Manali area. The NGT is looking at the mess in the two tourist towns with respect to environment, ecology, forest, sewage system, water supply, collection and disposal of municipal solid waste as well as strength of the hill.

The TCP Department has already initiated process of preparation of Development Plan of the Kullu Valley Planning Area which will include both Kullu and Manali. This will be based on the latest satellite imageries and base map to be made available by NRSC (National Remote Sensing Center) Hyderabad. The plan would be finalised by March, 2019, said TCP officials.

The green tribunal’s order

The NGT in its order on September 19 had directed that the assessment of the carrying capacity of the towns of Manali and McLeodganj be done in terms of tourist inflows, vehicular traffic and parking space, road infrastructure, availability of drinking water, air quality, bio-diversity of the area, structures stability, seismicity, land bearing capacity of soil, proneness of landslide, structural flaws in existing structures and transport and mobility.